App Developers: Are you violating the new COPPA Act?

We’ve been following the upcoming COPPA news for quite some time now so it wasn’t surprising that we stumbled upon an article in the Wall Street Journal by Jeremy Singer-Vine and Anton Troianovski this past week. Their article focused on the alarming amount of children’s apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play—28 of 40—that shared data on children with analytics companies, which track the ways people use particular apps.

We recently completed some related research and learned that gaming apps often collect unnecessary data on young users. For example, “The Harry Potter Story” app sends the user’s phone number, location, and list of applications installed on the device to aggressive ad networks in plain text. Under COPPA, app developers will need to pay closer attention to the information their apps are collecting on children or face a hefty fine ($16,000 per violation) from the FTC.

The Application Developers Alliance also posted a helpful video to answer FAQs on the updated act, including the most common rules developers may not know they are violating. Check it out here.